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Wednesday, 13 January 2016

TANBA Japanese BBQ was the first renowned restaurant in Johor Bahru which focuses on Japanese styled BBQ buffet. Subsequent to its success, BBQ buffet has became a trend in Johor Bahru and BBQ buffet restaurants start to spring up like mushrooms everywhere in the southern tip of Malaysia. However, among the other BBQ Buffet restaurants, I would still give my preference to TANBA.

The magnificent exterior design of the restaurant is the first attraction, although its main door is always closed and not so inviting, but in a way it looks mysterious and stimulate people's curiosity. With the White Pine giant bonsai in front of the restaurant, it truly exhibits the culture of Japanese.

The indoor setting is very spacious and comfortable too. The dining tables are custom-made to ensure suitability for BBQ, thick wooden surface with a space in the middle of the table for placement of charcoal and equipped with the built-in hood. Unlike most of the Korean restaurants with the retractable hood, I like the idea of having the built-in hood, so the diners will not feel smoky during the dinner and leaving the restaurant without the barbeque smell.

TANBA offers both buffet style and ala carte BBQ. For normal diners like us, the menu for buffet is sufficiently good and worthy for us. If you are looking for even premium ingredients for your BBQ, you may go for the ala carte menu which provides various top quality items eg. black pork, wagyu and urchin. The pricing for buffet is as follows:

Monday - Sunday Dinner (5pm- 11pm) : RM88+ per pax

Monday - Friday Lunch (12pm - 5pm) : RM68+ per pax

Saturday - Sunday & Public Holiday Lunch (12pm-5pm) : RM88+ per pax

With the price, you are entitled to enjoy everything on 2-pages buffet menu, ranging from sashimi, sushi, appetizer, main course, soup, dessert and various ingredients for BBQ. Oh ya, please ensure that you read the ordering rules on the top of the menu that every diner is limited to 5 dishes per order.

Our meal started with the appetizers comprising Chuka Idako and Sashimis, all served in small portion just good for two pax, so that we can taste more dishes later on. Although with a cheaper price (than ordering from the ala carte menu), our dining experience was not jeopardised and the foods served were very fresh and of high quality.

Our meals followed by the BBQ items, which we could select from the menu the meats and the marinades that we prefer. Apart from the meaty ingredients, they have wide selection on seafood too, like scallop, prawn, squid, fish and etc.

We had Yakitori on the grill too! Yummy~

This is a kind of dried fish that I couldn't really recall its name. Place them on the barbeque panel and grill it to the perfection, the texture of the dried fish is quite chewy and is a very good snack to go with sake.

Last but not least, TANBA's ice cream as dessert! They serve only two flavours ice cream, but both tasted heavenly good and creamy.

Another tip of having buffet meal in TANBA: the ordering period is limited to 2 hours from the first order, but you may stay in the restaurant until the end of every session to finish the foods ordered during the 2 hours.